News, Articles and Interviews

How to Reduce Our Water Footprint to a Sustainable Level?

March 22, 2018

The creator of the water footprint concept, Arjen Hoekstra, lays out the steps countries need to take in order to reduce their water footprints.  First, governments must establish water footprint caps for all catchments. Second,  they must formulate benchmarks for all large-scale water users such as agriculture, textiles and energy. Third is to promote fairer water use […]

From Not Enough to Too Much, the World’s Water Crisis Explained

March 22, 2018

Cape Town’s “Day Zero” was recently pushed from April to July because residents are working hard to reduce their water footprints. But the conditions that led to Cape Town’s impending disaster also exist in other locations and the disaster could happen anywhere. Author Stephen Leahy takes us through all the conditions that create water insecurity. […]

Eat Less Water: How Much Water Does it Take to Make Your Favorite Foods?

March 14, 2018

Southern Californians know how important water conservation is. Taking shorter showers  and changing out your landscape is important, but you ever thought about how much water it takes to grow the food you eat? Author Florencia Ramirez’s new book “Eat Less Water” tells you how to reduce your virtual water by eating food that requires less […]

Kansas Farmers Cut Ogallala Water Use – And Still Make Money

March 14, 2018

The Ogallala aquifer is a vast underground water source that people used to believe was endless. Extensive water pumping for crop irrigation proved that belief to be false, as sections of the aquifer began running dry. In 2012, a group of Kansas farmers decided to test their farming mettle by cutting their water use by […]

Report: Bottled Water Companies Rely on “Predatory” Tactics for Sales

March 5, 2018

A new report from Food and Water Watch entitled “Take Back the Tap,” looks at the booming business of bottled water. Nearly 64 percent of it comes from municipal taps and costs almost 2,000 times as much as tap water, which is significant when you consider bottled water companies target immigrant populations with their advertising. It […]

Interview: Florencia Ramirez on Why Saving Water Starts in the Kitchen

February 28, 2018

Florencia Ramirez wrote “Eat Less Water” after seven years spent visiting forward-thinking players in the food system to learn about their water-sustainable strategies. Then she wrote a book about our food choices to share what she learned with the rest of us. Florencia Ramirez journeyed across the United States over the course of seven years […]

Results From First Study on Global Environmental Impacts of Apparel and Footwear Industries

February 27, 2018

ClimateWorks Foundation and  Quantis – a group of environmental sustainability experts and consultants – just released results of their study on global fashion industries. The report, “Measuring Fashion: Insights from the Environmental Impact of the Global Apparel and Footwear Industries,” is the first of its kind to assess the environmental impacts – including water footprints – of […]

Running Dry in Cape Town

February 15, 2018

Diane Kane splits her time between Cape Town and San Francisco, so she has had her share of drought and extreme water conservation measures. In this op-ed, she reflects on what the conservation measures mean in light of all the modern plumbing conveniences we take for granted. She also discusses what changes need to happen […]

Cape Town is Running out of Water. Is Los Angeles Next?

February 7, 2018

After three years of drought, as Cape Town inches ever closer to ‘Day Zero’ – the day municipal water taps are turned off because the reservoir is dry – we in the US might think we won’t face a similar predicament. The truth is we have our own water-stressed cities and LA tops that list. LA […]